Customer Reviews

The Accidental President: How 413 Lawyers, 9 Supreme Court Justices, and 5,963,110 Floridians (Give or Take a Few) Landed George W. Bush in the White House

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Because of what is going on in the world now, maybe the 2000 election does not matter anymore. But I have a different opinion. Because George W. Bush is our president, it is that much more important to understand how he got the job. This book tell you how, and does so better than all the other political books prior to it this year.

...I couldn't resist on this one, after I noticedthat a few of the other reviews attack this book as being pro-Gore and anti-Bush. That just isn't so. The book has a lot of critical things to say about everybody involved in the 2000 election, but is remarkably fair-minded. Bush's advisers do very well when compared to Gore's. Where there are criticisms, they are supported by evidence and example, most of it told in a sweeping narrative style that made it a pleasure to read.

Perhaps the title of the book upsets some readers. Too bad for them. It is an accurate title, regardless of whether Bush or Gore won the election. Or perhaps Bush supporters think that anything written about their man that is not all warm and fuzzy isn't being patriotic. That would be too bad. But I still bet any objective reading of this book would leave a Gore supporter just as unhappy as a Bush supporter. Either way, in my opinion, it's a great read.

Years from now, historians will wonder how in the world George W. took the Presidency from Al Gore. This book explains the inexplicable. But it is hardy a dry history. It is gossipy, as a book like this should be but rarely is, and it is filled with humor and wit, which is more than readers interested in politics have any right to expect. It's often said of well-written books about events like this that "it reads like a novel." Well, this one doesn't. It reads like a story the ultimate insider would tell his best friends. In writing "The Accidental President," David Kaplan has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the way politics and the judiciary works. He's also provided his readers with a damn good time.

Of all the books this year about the presidential election of 2000, this is the best one I have read. It combines brilliant reporting (the Newsweek excerpt had all these great scoops about the Supreme Court), sharp writing and a sense of humor about things so many other authors start pontificating about. I saw the author with Katie Couric on the Today Show and then on the Charlie Rose Show.
The author has an understanding of politics and law, and an appreciation of history and how things fit together. I think that is what makes this book different from the other election books.
I heard some conservative radio commentators say they thought this book was another anti-Bush diatribe, but I don't think they read the book. It has little negative to say about Bush. What is negative is about BOTH the Bush and Gore campaigns, and the Supreme Court. I don't think anyone looks good after the election and this book explains in detail why.
The World Trade Center tragedy means we should be supporting President Bush. But we should still understand how he became president after a very important and controversial election. This book tells us better than any other how and why.
The title of the book, "The Accidental President," may sound like criticism of President Bush, but I don't think it is. If Gore had won, he would also now would be "The Accidental President."

I really bought this book to prove a media bias against W. If that was my goal, I didn't get to do it. This is a very well written, funny, biting, balanced insight into all that went on. All sides are represented in their true light (which all should feel ashamed about) Very good read, indeed.

David A. Kaplan's detailed reportage will delight anyone interested in the who, what, where, when and why of last fall's Florida farce. From Al Gore's hectic concession retraction in the wee hours following election day to the hard feelings of Supreme Court Justices over a month later, readers are treated to scoop after scoop of rich detail, with generous (some might say overgenerous) mix-ins of witty asides.

Those interested in political bias will have to supply it themselves. There are circus contortionists unable to bend over as far backwards as the author did to avoid even the appearance of taking sides.

Though Kaplan is a New York Mets fan (we all have our problems), he's managed to step up to the plate and hit it out of the park, the it being the fiasco of our last presidential election. I don't know how he did it but Kaplan got more people to open up than Christian Barnard, and then shuts up as they relate the many-time absurd but always seriocomic Bush-Gore contest. Many people here in Seattle feel betrayed by the election process. Kaplan reaffirms why. A sad, albiet tiny, tragety of the WTC bombings is that they blew the well-earned coverage of Kaplan's excellent reporting off of page one, where it belongs. I'll be surprized if THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT does not become required reading for many poli-sci students, or those attending the Ringling Brother's Clown College in Sarasota.

Mr. Kaplan, in his distinctly chatty, but informative style has recaptured the fugacious intensity of the post(pre?) election period of 2000, when Lawyers Roamed the Earth. Please buy it and read it, for you will be entertained, educated and chastened by the story of how our country came to find itself at war during Bush 2.0.

Kaplan does a superb job of walking the reader through the incredibly complex events between election day and Gore's final concession to George W. Bush. Ideally, this book should be read together with Jeffrey Toobin's "Too Close to Call," because both books cover the same events from different perspectives. Both writers are pro-Democrat, but where Toobin blames the Democrats for being gutless, Kaplan attributes the blame for Gore's defeat in a surprising way: Kaplan blames the liberal-based custom of judicial activism, and Justice Anthony Kennedy in particular, for the sequence of events that ended in Bush's victory.

Kaplan's argument, coming from a liberal, is an unusual one: He argues that Roe v. Wade, the pivotal 1973 abortion case, was a debacle of judicial interference in the legislative process, and established the pattern of judges intervening in anything that they wanted to tinker with. The legal reasoning behind Roe v. Wade was that some judges imagined there might have been a right to privacy somewhere in the Constitution, even though that wording does not appear anywhere.

Fast forward to 2000, and we have the spectacle of Justice Kennedy as a key swing-vote on the Supreme Court, intervening in the presidential election merely because he had a whim that his judgement would be better than anyone else's. Thus, for those who accept this author's reasoning, we have the rich irony of Roe v. Wade leading to a judicial coup d'etat by a conservative-controlled Supreme Court. Somewhere along the way, the Supreme Court has declared itself to be dictator over the executive and legislative branches.

Writing in the summer of 2001, Kaplan says, "George W. Bush may be forgotten soon enough. His presidency is accidental and the tranquil times don't cry out for leadership." Oops! Well, few anticipated what would happen a few months later.

This book tells of the behind the scenes events that occurred during the Presidential Election of 2000. This book uncovers the truth about the election, what happened, and who's to blame. It is a wonderful book!

Just two words describe this event. Never again! Or maybe those two words should be Kathlene Harris. A real travesty in American history. I repeat, never again.